Geo News

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New York, July 27, 2015--Unidentified armed men in Pakistan abducted the Karachi bureau chief of the TV channel Geo News on Saturday and beat and robbed him before releasing him, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Faheem Siddiqui's abduction and calls on Pakistani authorities to ensure the assailants are held to justice.

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Hamid Mir and I last saw each other in Islamabad in late January at a meeting of the Pakistan Coalition on Media Safety. Mir, a senior anchor for Geo News, seemed as if he was on the road to recovery, but he was obviously still in pain from injuries he sustained during an assassination attempt on him last year. On April 19, 2014, Mir was shot multiple times as he left Karachi's main airport.

Syria is the world’s deadliest country for journalists for the third year in a row. International journalists were killed at a higher rate in 2014 than in recent years. A CPJ special report by Shazdeh Omari

Your Excellency, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif:
The Committee to Protect Journalists is writing to express its deep concern over the recent decision by Pakistan's broadcast regulator to suspend the privately owned ARY News, which is watched by millions in the country. We urge your government to ensure the channel is immediately restored.

In April, Geo News senior anchor Hamid Mir was shot multiple times shortly after a CPJ delegation met with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who pledged to take several steps to improve journalist security. The investigation into the attack has yielded no accountability. And since the attack, two arrest warrants have been issued by courts in Quetta and Lahore against Mir, and Geo continues to face challenges.

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Forty-nine year-old magazine editor and publisher Shoaib Adil fled his home in the eastern city of Lahore last month and went into hiding with his wife and children. Adil faces threats and possible charges of blasphemy--a crime punishable by life imprisonment or death--in connection with a book he published in 2007, written by a judge belonging to a religious minority group in Pakistan, as well as with his magazine, which covers sensitive issues. For years, Adil has been able to navigate the challenges that come with his critical journalistic work. But now he faces the possibility of being unable to live or work safely in Pakistan.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif: We are writing to express our deep concern about the deteriorating climate for press freedom in Pakistan, which undermines recent commitments made by your government during CPJ's mission to the country.

Today, Pakistan's most watched news channel, Geo News, was ordered
off the air and fined by the
Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA). Earlier this
week, CPJ documented an attack
on Zafar Aheer, an editor of the Urdu-language DailyJang,by six masked men--the latest in a series of attacks, threats, and acts of intimidation reported
by staff working for the Jang/Geo group.

New York, June 6, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists
condemns a decision today by Pakistan's Electronic Media Regulatory Authority
to suspend the license of Geo News. The regulator said if the channel does not pay
a fine of 10 million rupees (US$100,000) by the end of the 15-day suspension,
it will remain off the air, according to news reports.

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New York, April 22, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists is greatly concerned by actions brought by Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) against Geo Television today. In its complaint to the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority, the ISI accused Geo's parent company, the Independent Media Corporation, of conducting a "false and scandalous campaign undermining the integrity and tarnishing the image of state institution (ISI) and its officers."